Fritz Glarner’s “Rockefeller Dining Room”revisited by Alfredo Häberli

curated by Sabine Schaschl

One of the centerpieces of Museum Haus Konstruktiv’s collection is Fritz Glarner’s “Rockefeller Dining Room” from 1963/64. It is an excellent example of the principle of “relational painting” and a unique testimony to concrete interior design.

Donation by Paul Büchi Stiftung

Fritz Glarner, resident in New York from 1936, was contracted by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1963 to design his New York City apartment “dining room”. Glarner decided to adopt the classic oil-on-canvas technique for work on certain ceiling and wall panelling. In 1963/64, he prepared for this challenging design by means of numerous sketches, studies and a model. After finishing the panels in his atelier, they were transported from Long Island to New York and assembled on site.

In 1987, the “Rockefeller Dining Room” was put on sale as a piece of art, was bought by the Paul Büchi Foundation and restored. The artistically captivating interior is one of the rare examples of concrete interior design in its original form and has found a home, permanently installed in the Haus Konstruktiv. Since 2008 the “Rockefeller Dining Room” is part of the collection Museum Haus Konstruktiv.

In 2016 Museum Haus Konstruktiv could realize a very special project that brings Fritz Glarner’s permanently exhibited “Rockefeller Dining Room” closer to its original purpose. The famous designer Alfredo Häberli was invited to conceive a new interior design for the “Rockefeller Dining Room”, so as to make it possible to experience Glarner’s room-specific work in the context of a dining room once again.